After the discussion going in the TPM thread, I was wondering what everyone thought of AOTC at this point. Like TPM, I re-watched this movie for the first time in quite awhile over the weekend on Spike TV. Also like TPM, there is a lot of things that bug me, and some stuff that I really enjoy.

I remember coming out of the theater after seeing this for the first time, I thought it was great. It seemed closer to "Star Wars" to me, maybe due to the presence of the Stormtrooper-like Clones, as well as ties to Boba Fett and other OT concepts. The vehicles started looking more OT-esque as well, different from the sleeker/shinier looks in TPM. My friend and I left the theater saying that the last 45 minutes or so (if I remember right) were amazing. Pretty much from when Anakin and Padme get taken into the arena to the end - good stuff.

I pretty much feel the same way now. I really enjoy the Arena battle(s), as well as the lightsaber battles following (although I always wished that Anakin/Dooku would have been a bit longer). It was a nice setup to the Clone Wars and ROTS, and like Jesse mentioned in the other thread - it would have made a nice first movie, setting up a Clone Wars centric Episode II. Dooku was a pretty cool villain, and I did enjoy Jango even if he was essentially just "cashing in" on the popularity of Boba Fett. He still looked pretty cool to me, and Temuera Morrison was pretty good in the role. I don't have quite the problems with Hayden as many others do, as I think he is a decent actor and has been good in other non-Star Wars movies I've seen.

On that topic though, some of the Anakin/Padme stuff was cringe-worthy to me. From the first viewing to the current one, the "fireplace" scene dialog and the running through the grassy hills stuff was just not for me. It really seemed cheezy. I remember someone saying in an older thread one time that the original Clone Wars animated series seemed to portray the love story better with a few words or "looks" than the entire AOTC movie did. I could see that. Other than that, I don't know that I have a ton of other major complaints about the movie. Jar Jar was really toned back, and there's things that could be changed, but the love story stuff didn't work for me as well as I'd hoped. Also, it might just be me, but for some reason some of the Obi-Wan/Anakin banter really sticks out to me. Mainly the way that Obi-Wan, when he's "scolding" Anakin, always calls him something that seems excessively long. "My very young apprentice", "my young padawan", and things like that. It just stands out to me as sounding strange for some reason. They are supposed to be "good friends", and for the most part that didn't seem to come across all that well to me. Anyways, what are your thoughts on AOTC now?

I liked it, but these days, I think it would be a much stronger film if about twenty minutes of Anakin and Padme's "romance" was cut from it entirely. I agree with you Brain, that stuff really makes me cringe. I know that Anakin had spent the last ten years studying to be a Jedi, so I can't blame him for not being able to talk to girls, but damn. You don't have to say everything you're thinking or feeling.

I remember when Fox would air AOTC, and this cut (which I think is close to the same as the IMAX cut) had all of those scenes between Anakin and Padme cut out, and it was a much better movie, IMO.

Now, for what I liked about it- I loved the Arena battle, the Battle of Geonosis was something I'd been waiting forever to see in a Star Wars movie, and I finally got to see the Jedi in a large-scale battle. AOTC had most of the things I wanted the prequels to have in them, it's just that I was disappointed they were all jampacked into the last third of the movie.

I'd have to pretty much agree with what's been said so far. Most of the love story could be edited out. More WARS. After all that's what the story is REALLY about. The interaction between Obi/Ani is strained and shouldn't have been. I never got that they were friends/brothers in arms in any of the prequels.

At first I thought the Super Battle Droids were kind of stupid. Just an upgrade in armor. But they've grown on me a bit. The resounding theme that I didn't like about the prequels was that the bad army was all droids. There was no feeling there. Had they been aliens and humans I think I'd have felt more for the battle. The fact that the Republic had clones also diminshed my feelings towards that army. Don't get me wrong, of course we expected to see clones. But when both armies are basically manufactured, there is no feeling of loss. Both sides could continue to manufacture their respective armies until finally one would come out on top. Heck we can even go so far as to say nearly the same thing for the Geonosians. Theywere afterall just "bugs" and a hive mentality for the most part-with exception to Poggle the Lesser of course.

Comparing this to the OT, at least with the OT you got the sense of loss. Named X-wing pilots being killed in battle. Hoth and Endor troops shot down. Those troops had faces and they were all different. So when their lives were lost it was felt more as they were unique individuals each with their own story. Not so for the battle droids, and barely for the clones as well.

I don't know if this was done to play down the violence or not, but it feels to me like we were short changed in this aspect. Only when the CIS leaders were slaughtered did I even feel a ping of loss for them.

Anyway getting back to AOTC. Overall I loved the movie and thought it was leaps and bounds better than TPM as it was much closer to what I think of SW being. One major complaint was that there was no major space battle. I'm not including Obi Vs. Jango either, I'm talking about an all out large battle. And it's disappointing too as there very well should have been in the space above Geonosis. As Dooku is escaping we see some of teh CIS ships but NO Republic ships fighting them. So the CIS is just getting away.

I was glad that Jar Jar's role was greatly diminished in this one.

Logged

I'm just a humble collector trying to make his way through the universe...of toy aisles."We are strong. We are resilient. We are American." - President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address 2010

Until the end of time, when I watch that first scene between Anakin and Padme, when she says "oh, Ani, you'll always be that little boy I knew on tatooine," I'll always yell "cut to his reaction!" It's his scene. She just dissed him. We needed to see his reaction to the answer to the question he came into the scene with. Horrible shortsightedness on the part of the filmmakers, they didn't even "get" their own movie.

When they are in the droid factory, why do Padme and Anakin seem to run away from each other. I know Padme does the whole obsticle course thing with the machines, and the Geonosians attack Anakin, but it seems like they really didn't make a lot of effort to move towards each other. Like Anton's comment about Anakin's reaction, a tiny little thing added to this scene would make it more believeable, like Padme being chased by a Geonosian the whole time, or Anakin telling her to head toward the exit and he'll get the control room, something....

I felt bad for Ewan MacGregor, watching him interact with the Kaminoans was a little tough. Clearly talking to a CGI character hasn't been refined to the level of creating that CGI character. I didn't really like the scene at Deks diner either, seemed to have the same stunted feel, where it needed a little more fleshing out.

While we were watching AOTC we got to the arena scene where two Jedi toss lightsabers to Anakin and Obi-Wan. Anyone remember who those cameo actors are? I thought they were from a 90s boyband, but my wife didn't recognize them and I couldn't remember who they were. Anyone know?

Sorry for the brief reply, but...damn, AOTC sucked. By far the worst movie of the saga. The bad acting, the lame romance, the lack of 'star wars', the horrible action figure line...yuck...

I don't think the movie sucked. I couldn't get enough of the Arena scene, with all the Jedi. That was always my favorite part. And IMO the action figure line was great. It just got better and better. Although I am not to keen on the "Big Bubble" but oh well. Attack Of The Clones, was hot.

I caught this on Spike TV in the last week or so again, and this movie - to me - was really "this close" to being better than it was. As I was watching it, I realized that I actually liked a lot of portions of this movie (and thought it was great the first couple times I saw it in the theater, but maybe that was the "newness" factor). I really like just about all the Obi-Wan stuff in here. The Obi vs Jango (in person and in space), unraveling the "mystery" of the clones and Sifo Dyas, and his character arc in general. Plus, there's the often mentioned last forty five minutes or so - the entire Geonisis arena sequence from when Anakin/Padme enter the arena until the end is pretty good. I even like the opening sequence through Coruscant well enough. The parts that drag the movie down are really, for the most part, the love story aspects. That isn't necessarily a criticism of Christiansen or Portman, who I think are both capable actors (pretty good in other roles that I've seen), but just the way the dialog is written and the scenes in general. The majority of their "alone" stuff is tough to watch for the most part. Also, another thing that has always stuck out to me - in the opening Coruscant chase scene in particular - is the dialog between Obi-Wan and Anakin. I think I've mentioned this before, but the whole "my very young apprentice" stuff gets a little old. Anyways, just thought of this thread after seeing the movie again lately.

I am not a regular poster here but I thought I would chime in. I think I would have to say I liked everything. I agree with all the negative points everyone above made. Still, it's Star Wars, and for whatever reason, I end up growing to enjoy everything (except Ahsoka in the CW film but that is another story, lol).

I remember vacationing in Seattle and catching AOTC on IMAX. If you recall, they had to trim down the running time because (at the time) IMAX could only show 2 hour movies. I immediately noticed the cuts and wanted them back. LOL, I am not sure if it wasn't a better movie w/out a lot of the "romance scenes" removed.

AOTC is really pretty bad up until the Arena scenes I think. I actually like it once they started fighting. Of course for the most part they all quit talking which was sweet relief. Although Kenobi's lines like "Very good my young Padawan!" annoy me along the way. All the "Annie" lines are irritating. The lightsaber "fight" between Dooku and Anakin fizzled. I liked Yoda fighting with the lightsaber. The clones fighting. All the Jedi fighting the battle droids was decent. Jango Fett was decent but of course Boba turned out to be annoying. "Firer!!!" "Ha-hahahaha!" "I don't think we will be seeing him again." Uggh.

All it all I liked it much more than TPM. But yeah the toy line was terrible. Natalie Portman looked good in quite of a few of those outfits. So, that made the terrible dialogue somewhat manageable...kind of...sort of...maybe?

I actually laughed out loud in the theatre when Anakin uttered "You are in my soul torrrrrmenting me," just because it was so incredibly bad. Then the "We live in a real world. Come back to it!" Oh just horrible stuff. It was painful to hear.

I'm rewatching this and until now I don't think I appreciated how bad the dialogue and acting really are. I mean, this dialogue is like something I would have written in sixth grade. (At least crack a thesaurus, George!) And eighty percent of the acting is just ******* dismal, which is a shame considering the crew of actors on board.

You can get by with ****** dialogue if you have great performances, and to a lesser extent good dialogue can salvage a poor performance. But this is the worst of both.

George's storyline is great, but he needed a real director to get decent performances out of the bunch. And a better screenwriter than Jonathan Hales--or perhaps George simply didn't let him change much on the AOTC script and that's why he wasn't asked back for ROTS.

You know, I was watching this on Spike last week for a bit and noticed something I hadn't thought about before. I'm sure it has been discussed previously, and I just missed it, but in ESB when Chewie is reassembling C-3PO I was always under the impression that his head didn't "work" until Chewie attached it to his torso (and then turning it on). Then, in AOTC we see his head by itself, with lit up eyes and talking, on several occasions. Again, maybe just something I am wrong about (regarding the ESB stuff), but it seemed like something that was maybe overlooked. Anyways, just an observation.